LOVE

Scenes from the MCC Colombia Office

Excited for a visit from MCC Alumni.

Working out transition details in the corridor.

Lulo juice.

Luz, who lovingly cooks for us on Fridays.

Abby's favorite carrot salad and salty, buttery arepas.

Beautiful Vilma.

Ely Caro, the money manager.

Shared space with Mennonite World Conference.

A very appreciated library, with books in both English and Spanish covering politics, religion, poetry, novels, and workshop manuals.

My dear office-mate.  I will miss this view.  She will NOT miss my interruptions to her work.

Connecting.

Sporting

Andy is now on his seventh sport since we have been in Colombia.  He has thoroughly enjoyed them all, and we are grateful to live in a place where there is so much to offer.  This time, he was interested in tennis.  Before, Aaron and I would have said that Andy was a strictly team-sport kind of person.  He loves the contact and interaction of a group.  But tennis has been really good for him to work on concentration, technical skills, coordination, and personal satisfaction.  He plays on really nice clay courts with a view of the mountains, and while he is enrolled in a class for two hours a day, the first part is almost always a private lesson (because he is so punctual and well, the Colombians are...not).  He is learning a lot and enjoying a quieter sport for a change.

Abby chose to join cheerleading (Porras) as an extra-curricular at school.  This is a new team, and they had a contest to determine their name.  Abby won with the submission of "Star Flyers."  She is one of the older kids on the team, so she is in charge of getting people in order, organizing them, calling out lead numbers, and lifting other little girls.  It is a perfect fit for her.  She loves to learn routines, fit them to music, and work her muscles in new ways (she recently had a leg pain that the doctor says is common for cheerleaders).  I hope these picture make her Grandma Bobbie proud.

Swimming.  The perfect sport for an introvert.  Lydia has been swimming for awhile but recently decided to enroll in the intensive course, which meets four days a week for two hours.  She regularly swims 3000-3600 meters each day that she goes.  She is a very content swimmer, and has learned some good technique, but she does not compete in races, so it is low pressure an relaxing.  And when you are dealing with school anxiety, two hours of swimming is exactly what one needs in order to go to sleep.  Aaron and I are so impressed when we watch her in the water.  She is completely graceful, and very, very muscular.  (Not exactly how we might describe her on land).  I hope she can find a fun setting to continue with this sport when we go back to the U.S.

Dia de Latinamericanidad

For the Spring school fair, the primary school each studied a different region of Colombia, and the high school students each studied a different country in Latin America.  

Andy's class had Venezuela.

And Lydia's class had Mexico.

While these projects are usually a lot of work, for both students and parents, I am always so pleased with the enthusiasm, new understandings, and pride that comes from them.

Abby's class studied the Eastern Region of Colombia, where there are plains like Kansas.

Each region of Colombia has its own food, clothing, culture, accent, and dance.  They learned it all, and presented a dance.  (I have to ask Lydia to help me upload the video).

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that my children would be learning so much in this context.  And now there is a big part of them that is "Latinamericano."  

They feel at home here. They feel connected here.  Like a sponge, they have absorbed the warmth, pride, and love of this country, and it will no doubt be with them for the rest of their lives.

I found myself wishing that we took the time and effort to really study and celebrate the different cultures in the United States.  It is so much easier to think about what is "American" and what is "Unamerican" instead of really examine and understand the different cultures in our country, and honor their uniqueness.  I am so grateful for knowing this part of my children's identity, and I will try so hard to keep it there.

Semana Santa, 2012

Holy Week is the most popular time for vacations in Colombia.  However, we enjoyed another "stay-cation" with several visitors coming to see us.

Abby designed a puppet show of dogs and hamsters, and our Chilean friend Teri was glad to narrate and direct it for her.  Aaron and I did the sound effects.

We were also glad to have our friend Erica stay with us.

And Elizabeth and Neil came for a Sushi-making lesson/party that was simply delicious.

MCC Retreat #9: Medellin

A husband who is freshly recovering from knee surgery and unable to travel with us.

A little girl with a high fever who really wishes you could sit by her bed all day.

A Mom who is responsible for many of the logistics of the retreat.

Mixed emotions of a 10 year anniversary celebration, and the difficult team transitions to come.

These factors made this last retreat, well, challenging.

Still, I am so very grateful 

for team-members who jump in and help,

for music and prayer and inspired stories of advocacy and hope,

for Crayola markers and birthday cake,

for friends with movie options for sick girls,

for cool, crisp swimming,

for birds outside my window and a secret stash of GORP.

Worship with this group is very moving.

So is saying goodbye.

And, while many on our team attribute the "play" time to the kids, I would argue that this is just simply a playful group.  And I am so grateful.

SWEET!

The family farm we visited has been producing sugar cane for over 200 years.  I was so very grateful that my children got to hike around and learn about the whole process, understanding the origin of the sweetness they so often crave.

Large fields of sugar cane are still cut by hand and loaded onto horses who carry to get processed.

Lydia found a giant stalk.

Abby learned how to use a machete to harvest the cane.

Andy was in farm-heaven, with open ears and eyes and so very happy to use his new machete to contribute.  He probably would have worked all night if he could have.

Walking through a freshly-cut field.

When you want to plant a new crop, you just use a piece of stalk like this one.

This is the panela processing place, where they squeeze the cane juice out of the plants.

Even sucking on the stalk is sweet....probably the raw-est form of sugar my kids will ever taste.

The pulp is then sold and used to make recycled paper.

Tasting the sweet, fresh, warm panela before it gets hard.

After molded into blocks, it is shipped all over the country.  The majority of families in Colombia drink panela every day.

Just weeks after we got to witness this process, the United States signed  Free Trade Agreement with Colombia.  We wondered how this might change things for this small operation.  We hope they can continue to grow, process, and sell this yummy sweetness for many years to come.